Priaulx returns to the Race of Champions
ANDY PRIAULX hopes to taste success in the Race of Champions once again this weekend when he takes part in this year’s event with former Grand Prix driver David Coulthard in Foro Sol, Mexico City.
The two-day event on 19-20 January will be the first time it has been held in Latin America.
This will be the Guernsey driver’s ninth Race of Champions since 2006, with his highlight being in 2015 when he won the ROC Nations Cup partnered with Jason Plato.
‘It is such a fun event and one I love taking part in,’ Priaulx said.
‘It is great to be pitched against the world’s best drivers and to know that we are all on a level playing field.
‘The cars are totally different to those we usually drive, so there is always a challenge to get used to them.
‘I have been lucky enough to partner great drivers, such as Jenson Button and Jason Plato, and another amazing highlight for me will be to share the cars with David Coulthard. I don’t think it can get better than that.’
Apart from the win, Priaulx has been a finalist in the ROC Nations Cup in both Beijing (2009) and Dusseldorf (2010) with Button and Plato respectively.
‘I would have loved a hat-trick of ROC Nations Cup wins, but being beaten on both these occasions by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher is not a disgrace,’ he said.
In the individual Race of Champions he was a semi-finalist three times, in 2007, 2008 and 2010.
The event was created in 1988 and has travelled all over the world in those 30 years.
The Foro Sol, where it is based this year, is a sports and concert venue built in 1993 inside the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez where the Mexican Grand Prix is held.
This year’s timetable has the ROC Nations Cup competed for on Saturday, with drivers pairing up in teams based on nationality and the title of the ‘World’s Fastest Nation’ up for grabs.
On Sunday it is the Race of Champions itself when it is for individual glory.
